The beginning of the college football season also marks the release of the newest editions of college football video games. Playing the role of Florida, perennial powerhouse EA Sports has brought the house with ""NCAA Football 2010."" Given the hype surrounding the newest game, the game's shortcomings are a bit surprising.
Think of ""NCAA Football 2010"" as a solid screen pass, and not a Hail Mary. Although the latest entry into the college football franchise boasts improved AI, new online content and better player animations, there is no defining feature that sets it apart from its predecessors.
Although other companies have moved onto EA's turf in other sports games, they still blow the competition away in college football. ""NCAA Football 2010"" is no different, as it retains the title of best college football game of the year. Still, fans who have bought each of the previous games in the series may be a little surprised at how little has changed. One of the most hyped features was ""Road to Glory,"" a new career mode featuring every college boy's favorite sideline reporter Erin Andrews. As it turns out, Road to Glory is simply a repackaging of the Campus Legend mode from the previous years' games, with an animated Andrews added in for kicks. The mode begins with Andrews describing how you've been selected for a long-form feature story, in which cameras will follow your every move from your last high school games all the way through college. As exciting as that sounds, the only difference between Road to Glory and Campus Legend is that it's now mandatory to create photo and highlight reels of yourself after each game. While this was a fun diversion in ""NCAA Football 2009,"" making it a mandatory part of the game is superfluous.
Despite this, the game boasts the most realistic gameplay yet. The AI learns your preferred routes, forcing you to constantly revise your strategy. In fact, the sheer number of plays may overwhelm the first-time player, and a true mastery of your team may require a few trial games or read-throughs of the playbook. The animations are great, as receivers lunge forward for extra yards, quarterbacks sidestep and shake off would-be tacklers and defensive players take better angles on running plays, so you can't simply run around in the backfield before beating all 11 defenders around the corner.
The Dynasty Mode is also solid, boasting little features like better recruiting, more customizable options and nifty features like the campus newspaper bringing simulated news about your team. Now, when you want to read about Wisconsin's thrilling victory over Fresno State, you can scroll through a digital version of The Daily Cardinal (sorry Badger Herald, guess you got redshirted this year). When recruiting, the menus are better organized, the grading is more transparent and you can pit yourself against other schools, i.e. selling a recruit on the quality of life at Wisconsin compared to Nebraska.
The biggest draws (and drawbacks) for ""NCAA Football 2010,"" however, are the online features. If your game system is hooked up to the Internet, load screens feature sports radio clips from that day, and the weather for quick games is automatically set to the current weather in your preferred location.
Furthermore, the game features an Online Dynasty mode, where you and several friends can each control a team, attempting to best each other through season play.
The Teambuilder portion has been moved to the computer only, but this ends up being a good thing, as the free website is easy to navigate and seamlessly connects with your console. The mode allows you to type in your friends' names, scan in your high school's logo or uniform and customize almost anything else you want.
The game also has a unique new feature called Season Showdown, in which players can sign up before the season starts with their favorite team and attempt to garner as many Sportsmanship points as they can. Every game played with your preferred team after that adds or subtracts points, all of which add to your team's worldwide total.
Although the idea is novel, it does take away points for things like going for it on fourth and long or running pass plays in the fourth quarter of a blowout. Although this leads to a more realistic game, going for it on fourth and 20 has always been half the fun. The final verdict on Season Showdown will have to wait until this year has ended.
The one major drawback to the online play is a money-making scheme implemented by EA called microtransactions, which are essentially power-ups that you have to pay for. Imagine the frustration of playing a spoiled 13-year-old whose parents gave him $20 to buy extra pipeline states and extra training for players. Microtransactions are the World of Warcraft equivalent of buying and selling characters and gold online; your team may rock, but at what cost?
Despite the few missteps, ""NCAA Football 2010"" is the best college football title from EA in years. They may not have won the Rose Bowl on a game-ending Statue of Liberty play, but they certainly earned themselves a BCS bid.
Grade: B
